


Gleypa Okkur

by Clayres



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Also mild swearing, Gen, Kingdom Hearts III Spoilers, Mentioned Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Not Canon Compliant, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Riku kinda being the author's spirit animal, Vanitas being... Vanitas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-23 06:01:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20003473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clayres/pseuds/Clayres
Summary: Riku finds himself alone in a strange world, when he is approached by someone with an unsettling offer.





	Gleypa Okkur

**Author's Note:**

> A story that was inspired by a song, and the notion of an acquaintance of mine who insisted that _someone_ was definitely a Riku. And another KH one, hurray!

The night was overcast, not a single star nor moon in sight.  
Maybe a storm was brewing somewhere.  
Not that it mattered anyway. The other worlds were out of reach in this one, and the lightning would at least illuminate the dark a bit.  
He didn’t know how he ended up here, or how far he was from home, but Riku knew that without Sora there could be, _would_ be no going back.  
Sora was the key (he always was and always had been).  
And Sora was gone.  
The day he and Kairi returned to the Destiny Islands seemed an eternity ago. The last day Riku had spent together with all his new other friends, somewhat carefree and happy.  
The last day home.  
He’d been roaming this strange, desolate city (it reminded him of the World that Never was, now that he thought about it) ever since, searching, for Sora, a way out, hoping, for a miracle, waiting, for his body to finally give in, but while his mind was growing ever tired, he felt no physical exhaustion, not even hunger.  
He might as well have been dead.  
And maybe that was actually the case, and this was his own personal purgatory, a never-ending night without his sun.  
The first strike of lightning hit, with the thunder following not long afterwards.  
He sank into the shadows of his refuge in an abandoned skyscraper, sitting with his back against the photograph-draped wall.  
He stopped wondering what happened here too long ago.  
He was just so tired.  
Sighing, he closed his eyes to rest for a bit-  
-only to feel those of another setting on him.  
“You again” he stated, not evening opening his eyes.  
“Yes, yes, it’s me again, why not skip the salutations, I was going to do that anyway. Have you thought about my offer?” his visitor asked with a husky voice.  
“There’s not much else for me to do here, is there? And no. I decline.”  
He could hear the angry frown forming on the other’s face.  
“You can’t find him alone, can you? You said it yourself: there’s nothing left you can do on your own now.” The audible frown lifted to an audible smirk. “Actually, there never was.”  
Riku crossed his arms and turned away.  
“And still I would rather end myself here and now than working with – no, how did you put it – ‘joining’ with you. No means _no_.”  
The smirk turned into rage again. This one was changing emotions quicker than than the lightning flickering outside even closer now.  
“You arrogant-!!!” he started shouting, before composing himself, lowering his voice into a growl. _“Do you even_ want _to find him, or do you just not give a shit about him anymore, just like about everything else.”_  
Riku, still turned away, let out a quiet groan.  
So damn tired.  
“Of course he still matters to me” he said softly “more than anything why is this so important to you?” he asked with a sudden notion, turning around to face his opponent for the first time in… well, this conversation.  
“I told you. I told him too, but both of you just won’t listen. I’m his shadow” the boy who painfully was wearing Sora’s face explained with a roll of his now red eyes. “We’re brothers now, whether any of you likes it or not.”  
“So you keep telling me. But what does that _mean_?”  
 _“It means I’m the dark side of his heart, you dumb-ass.”_ He was clearly getting impatient.  
“Sure, that clears everything right up. Smart-ass” Riku added as an afterthought.  
Vanitas groaned loudly.  
“Fine, _fine_ , you want a long-winded exposition while time is running out for Sora, _for all of us_ , you’re getting it!”  
Riku jerked up.  
“Wait, what do you mean time is running ou-”  
“ _Nope_ , no talking, exposition time!”  
Riku decided not to anger the boy even further now that he finally got him talking, and kept his mouth shut.  
“ _So_ , you know how, about a decade or so ago, after I joined with Ventus and he defeated me or something, shattering both pieces of his heart, me and him, he then entered baby boy Sora’s heart, right?”  
Riku nodded.  
“Good. That’s at least one thing I don’t need to tell you, _even though I just did_.” He took a sharp breath.  
“What you haven’t deduced by now, is, that I did not vanish completely either. I was sleeping inside your sunnyboy’s heart just like Venty-Wenty, and over time-”  
“You became part of Sora rather than Ven, because Sora gave him the part of his heart that was missing. So if he were to vanish, due to your connection, then-”  
“BINGO! One hundred points for the candidate! Give him a big hand!” Vanitas clapped loudly, as another lightning strike lit up the room, in time with the rolling of the thunder.  
He stopped as it was silent again.  
“You got it, if he kicks the bucket, so do I. Same goes for you by the way” he said, pointing at Riku.  
“Me? _How_?”  
“Of course. I’m his shadow, you’re his dream eater. Which is how I found you in the first place.”  
Riku took a step back.  
“I’m still his dream eater…?” He shook his head. “This is ridiculous. And even if it were true, that still doesn’t explain why I should help you. Or why you would help _me_ , and not get rid of me first thing once we’ve found Sora, _if_ we even find him.”  
“Because” Vanitas took another deep breath. “unlike you I have not given up yet, and with both of our connections to him together we stand a better chance of finding him than by ourselves. And.” A sighing breath. “I guess keeping you alive makes him happy, which in turn keeps him from finding a way of getting rid of _me_. Or from giving up on himself, for that matter. So I have nothing to gain from killing you.”  
The smirk turned back on.  
“Besides, why didn’t _you_ kill me yet if you didn’t even consider the slightest bit to take me up on my proposal?”  
Riku lowered his head.  
“I’m not that important to him.”  
The smirk grew wider.  
“So you _have_ given up. All the more reason to agree to join with me. You’ve got nothing to lose.”  
Riku shook his head.  
“And why should _I_ help _you_? Assuming you actually have the intention to help me.”  
“Do you care about Sunnyboy, or don’t you? _Assuming_ that’s a ‘yes’” Vanitas continued before Riku could through in an answer “you need to get stronger to find, and most likely protect him. And the darkness has its ways to do just that, or so someone once said. I know you can wield it properly by now, and I’ve got plenty of it myself, naturally.”  
Riku let that run through his head. It was true that he couldn’t do _anything_ on his own, which was frustrating enough in and of itself. But working with this… _weirdo_? That’d add a whole new level of madness to this predicament.  
On the other hand, he _had_ said Sora was running out of time, whatever that meant, and somehow he felt that he could believe what the boy had said. That he could _trust_ him, even.  
No, he wouldn’t go that far. Vanitas was still dangerous, intentionally or not.  
“I know what you’re thinking” said boy interrupted his trail of thoughts. “You know he’s practically helpless without any of us.”  
“Do you really think that? I’ve learned that he’s pretty capable on his own.”  
“Are you sure? As far as I know he’s still very much relying on his friends.”  
“Yes. I trust him to take care of himself.”  
Still, there _was_ a certain truth to Vanitas’ words. Why _he_ of all people would care about Sora’s well-being however was beyond him. Yet somehow he knew the black-haired boy did. And not only for his own sake, as he had claimed. Maybe this actually _could_ work out in Sora’s favour.  
“...okay, fine, _fine_. I’ll do it.” Riku held out a hand. “I’ll work with you.”  
Vanitas stared at it, then broke out in laughter.  
The lightning flared up again, one strike after another.  
“What’s so funny?!” Riku asked, bewildered, retracting his hand.  
“Oh isn’t that just so _precious_!” Vanitas howled. “You thought- you really thought that-”  
Riku lowered into a guarded stance.  
 _“So you were deceiving me?”_ he gnarled.  
“No-” Vanitas still didn’t catch himself again yet. He wheezed as he slowly calmed down again.  
“You know” he started, still snickering “I was being literal when I said I wanted to join with you.”  
“Wha- ho- how would that even work???”  
“You’re the dream eater, you tell me.” Vanitas’ fangs flashed up in the next strike of lightning. “I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”  
Riku tried to focus, despite the ridiculousness of the whole mess he got himself into. If he really still was a dream eater, then using his powers meant-  
“You want me to absorb you.”  
Gross.  
“Yep, that’s another hundred points to you. Seems like you’re on a roll.”  
Riku groaned.  
“Yeah, sure, let’s do that” he remarked with a bitter undertone “there’s only a slight problem.”  
The other boy furrowed his brows again.  
“Which is?”  
“I could only absorb my spirit companions for a small amount of time, not permanently.”  
“You offend me.” The smirk looked more like snarl now. “Who said I was like your _sweet_ spirits?”  
“You’re right, you’re a nightmare.”  
 _This_ was a nightmare. If only he could wake up.  
“Close.” Vanitas answered.  
He stretched out an arm himself- and it dissolved into a swirling black miasma.  
Riku just stood there in shock.  
“Neat party trick, isn’t it?” The smirk look even more strained now. “Comes in real handy for getting around.”  
“You’re...” Riku whispered.  
“...an Unversed, yes.” The arm returned to the body. “See? This way we can join without a time limit, you get to keep your body, but we’ll still both be stronger. Everybody wins.”  
Riku needed a moment to parse all of this.  
Vanitas however, became impatient again.  
“So, what do you say? If Sora is a sunny day’s sky, we’ll be the sky of a starless, stormy night, just like this one” he said, an echo of another, distant conversation, and pointed outside, where the storm slowly subsided. “Come on. You’ve got nothing to lose but your sanity.”  
Riku sighed deeply.  
“This will hurt, won’t it.”  
Vanitas shrugged.  
“You know what they say, ‘no pain, no gain’. Besides, once I’m with you, you’ll get used to it quicker than you’d like.”  
Riku let out another, more determined breath.  
“Okay.”  
Vanitas nodded.  
 _“Finally.”_ He looked Riku dead in the eyes, still smirking, but with a serious look. _“Ready?”_  
 _“Never.”_ Riku stared right back, now with a grim smile as well. _“Let’s do this.”_  
In a last, long flash of lightning, Vanitas disappeared completely, and Riku closed his eyes, concentrating on his powers, holding out both of his arms to the side.  
There was a faint glow as the miasma entered his body, and he screamed in pain, while the thunder roared outside.  
Then, everything was dark and silent again.

~~~

He woke up feeling sore in every last one of his bones.  
The worst of the pain however was in his head, which had memories that weren’t his rushing through it, like a river after a heavy rainstorm.  
He closed his eyes again and groaned quietly. What a nice start.  
Eventually he had to get up though. He rolled onto his stomach and got onto his knees, then he used the wall and the glass window as a hold as he got onto his feet.  
Looking down with his eyes open once more he noticed that the ground was further away than he remembered. He wondered what else was different from the memories.  
Apparently the night came to an end as the first light of dawn broke through the remaining clouds, just enough light to see his reflection in the window.  
One blue and one red eye stared back at him.  
He shook his head to get rid of any distracting thought.  
Sora.  
He had to find Sora. That was his only purpose, for now.  
He was confident that he could find him now, through that strengthened vein connecting their hearts, and that meant he would eventually need to face him as well.  
He was going to need a name in that case. Couldn’t call himself Riku _or_ Vanitas any longer.  
‘A starless, stormy night’s sky’, Vanitas had put it, hadn’t he? 

**Author's Note:**

> Soundtrack (a short one this time):
> 
> _Gleypa Okkur (transl.: Swallow Us)_ \- Ólafur Arnalds (from the oddly fittingly named album _...and They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness_ ),  
>  _Beauty is Within Us_ \- Yoko Kanno feat. Scott Matthew (though not in lyrics, but in the general feeling of the song, which was the first inspiration for this story),  
>  _For Now I am Winter_ \- Ólafur Arnalds feat. Arnór Dan (same as above, for the last part of the story),  
>  _Riku_ \- Yoko Shimomura,  
>  _Unbreakable Chains_ \- Yoko Shimomura,  
> (also the _Project Destati_ versions of both KH songs).


End file.
